I Have No Plans To Slow Down.

I Think That Is What We Do By Preserving And Telling Our Stories. If You Don't Tell Your Stories, Other People Will Tell Their Story About You. It's Important That We Nurture And Protect These Memories. Things Change. Existence Means Change. So, The Kind Of Precious Memories About Being Black For My Generation Won't Exist For My Kids' And Grandkids' Generations Unless We Preserve Them Through Fiction, Through Film, Through Comic Books, And Every Other Form Of Media We Can Possibly Utilize To Perpetuate The Story Of The Great African-american People.

The Biggest Surprise For Me, Without A Doubt, Was That The First Black People Who Came To The United States Weren't The 20 Who Arrived In Jamestown In 1619. All Of Us Had Been Taught That. Well, Guess What? The First African Came To Florida In 1513. And The Huge Shock Is We Know His Name, Juan Garrido, And That He Wasn't A Slave. He Was Free! This Brother Was A Conquistador Who Came With Ponce De Leon. He Was Looking For The Fountain Of Youth Just Like The White People Were.

For Black America Needs A Politics Whose First Mission Isn't The Reinforcement Of The Idea Of Black America; And A Discourse Of Race That Isn't Centrally Concerned With Preserving The Idea Of Race And Racial Unanimity. We Need Something We Don't Yet Have: A Way Of Speaking About Black Poverty That Doesn't Falsify The Reality Of Black Advancement; A Way Of Speaking About Black Advancement That Doesn't Distort The Enduring Realities Of Black Poverty.

Very Few, If Any, First-generation Black Or White Or Asian Kids Will Pursue A Ph.d. They'll Pursue The Professions For Economic Security. Many Will Go To Law School And/or Business School.

I Find That People Today Tend To Use Them Interchangeably. I Use African-american, Because I Teach African Studies As Well As African-american Studies, So It's Easy, Neat And Convenient. But Sometimes, When You're In A Barber Shop, Somebody'll Say, "did You See What That Negro Did?" A Lot Of People Slip In And Out Of Different Terms Effortlessly, And I Don't Think The Thought Police Should Be On Patrol.